Vodafone shares suffered this morning as the City reacted to the mobile giant's results for the year ended 31 March 2004. Despite a reasonable set of numbers and the launch of a share buy-back scheme to increase control of its Japanese subsidiary, traders were unconvinced.

Toys'R'Us is taking Amazon.com to court, claiming the bookseller violated its exclusive right to sell toys on the Amazon.com site. Toys'R'Us is seeking either damages to be determined at the trial, or the cancellation of the agreement and the return of the $200m it says it has paid in exclusivity fees.

Cisco yesterday took the wraps off its fastest router to date. The Cisco Carrier Routing System Cisco CRS-1 is designed to be a cornerstone for telcos to roll out next generation data, voice and video services over converged IP networks. Cisco reckons carriers who upgrade their core networks with the technology won't need to upgrade again for up to ten years.

Vodafone and Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) are gearing themselves up for launching 3G services in Italy this week. They will increase competition for Hutchison which launched third generation phones in Italy in March 2003

NTL is to launch two new ADSL products later this Summer, both of which are bundled with a phone service from the cableco. Documents seen by The Register confirm that the cable company is to move beyond its cable network to provide ADSL broadband to punters outside its franchise areas.

Following the runaway success of the Victorinox CyberTool 34 - the knife that does just about everything except go to work for you - we have decided to expand our range of Swiss Army Knives to include the latest innovations in multi-tool technology.

For we Reg hacks who now file our copy from a sun-kissed patio while sipping a piña colada - thanks to Intel's Centrino and the wireless LAN - the thought of dial-up Internet access is now little more than a slighty disturbing, distant memory.

Spam hotspots are emerging as the global levels of junk mail worldwide continue to increase. More than two thirds (67.6 per cent) of the 840m emails scanned by filtering firm MessageLabs last month was identified as spam. MessageLabs figures also indicate significant regional variations and spam "hot spots", despite attempts to deter spammers through legislation.

US systems integrator CIBER has bought Sage-specialist Ascent Technology Ltd. for £23m ($40m). The deal is expected to contribute to CIBER's bottom line both this year and next. CIBER turns over about $850m a year and employs 7,000 people in ten countries.

Speaking in London last week, Richard Stallman, founder of GNU, argued passionately against the legalisation of what he calls "software idea patents". The core of Stallman's argument is that if companies are allowed to patent software ideas, big business will ride roughshod over the smaller players, and the free software movement will be effectively strangled.

Microsoft has upped the ante in its pursuit of public-service contracts by launching an online marketplace, as the company counters the open source threat. Governments across Europe will be able to select technology vendors specialising in public sector development projects, following an announcement by Microsoft on Monday.

If Microsoft denies Windows XP pirates access to its SP2 upgrade, the result would hurt the Internet to protect Microsoft's bottom line. Try this analogy: suppose a car thief drove to the dealership and insisted that they perform brake repairs required by a recall notice, for free, on the stolen car.

Did Donald Rumsfeld ban camera phones for soldiers in Iraq? The story has appeared on the wires, and says he did. But while there are doubts about whether the story is true, there should be bigger doubts about whether it is even possible. The abiding image of censorship of letters from the Great War of 1914-1918 is of petty bureaucrats cutting holes in innocent missives sent from the front line. One assumes that something similar happens to troops today. It seems, one might be wrong in that assumption.

After enduring a flop of massive proportions, IBM customers will be pleased to know that a second version of the SAN File System, due out next month, will actually approach the grandiose promises once planned for version one of the software.

News this week that Hitachi is going to double its production of high-capacity disk drives gives us a hint at the production volumes involved in the forthcoming war over disk-based music systems like the Apple iPod.

Deutsche Telekom plans to splash out $2.5bn (£1.4bn) to acquire mobile phone networks in California and Nevada. The networks in question were jointly own by T-Mobile USA and the US mobile communications company, Cingular Wireless, following a deal back in 2001.

Comcast and Microsoft this week announced an agreement that extends their existing relationship and gives Comcast the ability to make available Microsoft TV Foundation Edition 1.7 software to up to five million customers, with the option to expand the roll-out at a later date.

The RAM Promotion Group (RAMPRG), the organisation behind the DVD-RAM specification, today lauded 5x recording speed drives from Hitachi-LG Data Storage and Panasonic as a sign that the technology is going places.

Problems with the computer systems on board the Eurofighter jet, signed into service with the RAF less than two weeks ago, could cause a "catastrophic" failure in flight, according to a confidential Ministry of Defence report leaked to former BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan.

The US is planning to build the most sophisticated computer-tracking system ever devised in order to keep tabs on foreigners entering the country. The project will also allow authorities to confirm that visitors deemed suspicious adhere to stated travel plans and leave the States before their visa expires.

Don't ask, don't tell and by all means don't post. That's the message being delivered this week to gay service men and women after a rash of online outings have much needed military personnel facing discharges.

To the Area 51 buffs who journey to the Nevada desert in the hopes of catching a glimpse of unexplained lights in the sky or to bask in the mythic allure of the region, 58-year-old Chuck Clark is almost as much a part of the local color as the Black Mailbox.